Erie Sales Club

The Erie Sales Club is an education and networking resource for serious sales reps and sales managers in Northwestern PA. It's created by Erie sales professionals for Erie sales professionals. And it's completely free of charge. To subscribe to the newsletter or learn more about our free quarterly sales workshops, send an email to Newsletter@Erie SalesClub.com.

Monday, August 18, 2014

If your initial contact does not have a title that indicates a
decision maker (DM), you must quickly get thorugh them and to the DM.
Titles that typically indicate influencers or DMs (these are guides, not
absolutes:
* Influencers: Managers, some Directors
* DMs: Some Directors (especially of a division), VPs, Owner, President, CEO

These
can vary with company size and management structure. For example, a
Director in a very large company may not be the DM, but in a smaller
company they may be part of the executive management team.

The
role of each person in the DM loop is not always tied to a title. If it
is not an obvious DM title, you need to test them. Regardless of title,
use skepticism to ensure you identify their true role in the process:

1. Ask about the DM process.
Get into the details, and if they are not the DM they will not be able
to answer effectively. Surface answers usually indicate they are not a
DM; once this is recognized, you should consider ending the conversation
and going upline ASAP. The longer you talk with a non-DM, the more
rapport you build and the harder it becomes to end the conversation.

2. Do they make recommendations to the DM?
Sometimes it's a rubber-stamp situation where the DM will sign whatever
the contact recommends. Often you need to talk with the ultimate DM
because your contact is only an influencer. Many people will speak to
their ego and say they're the DM when they have only a small amount of
input.

3. Exhaust your questions on the DM loop. Get the information you need, but don't go to the point of offending the contact.

4. Should you circumvent the contact and go upline?
Some contacts want you to go upline to make their job easier. Some
don't. This is a judgment call based on their personality and the
rapport you have built.

If you're going by titles, it's
much better to aim high and get referred back down than to start low
and have to claw your way up. You may get talking to the DM right away,
but worst case you get talking to an influencer and have not burned any
bridges. You can usually validate influencers by asking:
* Would you present this and support this to the DM?
* Why would the DM like or dislike our product/services?
* How often does the DM follow your recommendations?
* What was the last thing you recommended and was it successful?

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Although many sales reps have anxiety about getting to the decision maker (DM), reaching the DM is important because:
1. In order to make a sale, you must talk to the person who makes purchasing decisions to show that you can help them.
2.
Prompt identification of the ultimate DM and influencers prevents
wasting time speaking to someone who either cannot make the ultimate
decision or cannot influence the person who does not make the ultimate
decision.
3. You can have a textbook conversation with a non-DM and sell nothing. You can make mistakes with a DM and still make the sale.How To Identify & Contact The DM & Influencers
In
today's collaborative business environment, sometimes there are
multiple people in the DM loop. If this is the case, you must reach the
ultimate DM and all their influencers to understand what's important to
them. What do they need to see in order to purchase your product or
service?

Here are some tips on doing that:
1. Schedule separate conversations
2. Develop separate action plans
3. ID different Value Opportunities
4. ID if there is an upline influencer and contact them
5. Keep everyone in the DM loop informed when appropriate.

If
your discussions are out in the open, recap discussions of accepted
value and "cc" the entire DM loop as a follow-up to your conversations.
If you cannot reach everyone in the DM loop, then ensure you keep the
influencers informed of all the discussions you have with the ultimate
DM you do talk with.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Everyone knows how to listen. But top-of-the-line sales reps are
Active Listeners. Active Listening refers to being engaged in the
conversation and paying attention to what the contact is directly and
indirectly telling you. You need to understand not only what they say,
but their tone, their change in responsiveness, and what they don't say.

If done well, Active Listening can:
1. Help you accomplish your Business Outcomes and Emotional Outcomes for your call.
2. Help you identify as many Value Opportunities as possible to probe deeper to gain more information.
3.
Reveal cues about how a contact is feeling. Often the cues are subtle.
They contact may not state their thoughts and feelings explicitly about
how they feel about you, your products/services, your company, and their
own company.
4. Help you understand their personality type.
5. Help you identify potential issues with the customer before the issue is stated.
6. Shorten the sales cycle.
7. Help you know where to go next on the sales call.

Understand
there are direct answers and indirect answers. A direct answer is a
response that absolutely answers your question. An indirect answer
answers your question but also includes important information to things
outside of the question asked. The additional information may be
important to advancing the account. For example, you ask a prospect if
they will be available for a longer call next week. They say they will
be out of town at their biggest trade show of the year. If you are
actively listening, you should probe to understand details around that
trade show and how it impacts their business. An indirect answer also
includes their attitude or tone plus repeated phrases/words.

How You Actively Listen
1.
Keep an open mind during the conversation -- don't assume what they are
going to say next or what they're thinking. Don't anticipate an answer.
Pay attention to what they're actually saying.

2.
Be aware of what the contact wants to discuss. Don't simply follow your
own set of questions. To get the outcomes, you'll have to steer the
conversation; but don't hijack it.

3. Don't assume
anything. Ask follow-up questions to gain a full understanding. If you
believe you know the answer, say, "I think I know the answer to this but
I'd like to clarify to be sure ..."

4. Sometimes, you
have to let the contact talk for an extended period without interrupting
them. In this case, Live Note Taking is critical. You must have a
method for capturing and recalling the useful information the contact
gives you.

5. Comment on what the contact is saying
throughout the call -- that's the only way they know you're Actively
Listening and engaged in the call. Your comment can simply be a
reiteration of your understanding, or you can deliver value that is
specific to the contact. Example: "So you're saying that you're
outsourcing those responsibilities but you're not happy with their
timeliness, and you're interested in us because we have an on-time
guarantee. Is that right?" This confirms that what you heard is what the
contact actually said and meant.

Monday, June 2, 2014

A Value Opportunity (VO) is a need, want, or desire that is important
to the person or company that would cause them to buy from you. There's
no reason for a person to buy anything without that thing satisfying a
need, want, or desire. Once you identify and fully understand what's
important to the customer, you can show them exactly how your
services/products will meet their need, want, or desire, thus prompting
them to buy. If you don't identify the VO, then you're just throwing mud
against a wall to see what sticks.

In order to
identify VOs,you must actively listen to the contact and take notes
during your conversation. Usually, as you are probing to identify a
Value Opportunity, other VOs present themselves. Ideally, you want to
fully understand the current VO before moving to another VO. However, if
the contact wants to discuss a different VO, follow the contact's lead.
Probe to fully understand the VO the contact wants to discuss. After
you've exhausted that VO, be sure to go back to the original VO to
finish probing to fully understand.

Some VOs are
surface level. If you dig deeper to understand WHAT they are trying to
accomplish in these areas and WHY, you'll uncover a core VO that you
might be able to address with a greater number of services/products.
That's key to generating additional sales from one customer.

A few other thoughts on VOs:1.
If you identify and fully understand a potential customer's VOs before
making a proposal, your consultative approach will separate you from
your competition.2. VOs
will vary among the decision makers and influencers. So, it's important
to ask probing questions to everyone in the decision-making loop so you
get a complete picture of the opportunity.3.
You may have to use multiple lines of questioning to fully understand
each VO. You can segue between topics as much as necessary to fully
understand a VO, as long as the dialogue remains conversational with the
customer.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Understanding, recognizing, and responding to the decision maker's personality is important for a variety of reasons:1. It allows the conversation to continue. You can stay on phone with the contact or keep the face-to-face meeting alive.2.
You can appropriately establish rapport with your contact at the
beginning of your sales call. How well you establish rapport depends on
how well you recognize and respond to the contact's personality.3.
It leads you to establishing a relationship with the contact. People
buy from people they know, like, and trust. A contact won't give you any
business information until you establish a personal and/or professional
relationship with them.4. You can effectively identify and influence decision makers or those in the decision-making loop to advance a sale.5. You can effectively steer the conversation toward a sale.

During a sales call with a contact, you can recognize their personality by:
* How did they greet you?
* How did they answer your first few questions?
* How did they interact with you or others?
* Were they responsive?
* How well do they progress the conversation? Do they stay on business topics or stray to personal topics?
* Do they have high drive or low drive?
* What questions do they ask?

How To Respond
Mirroring
is the act of tailoring your response to a contact and presenting in a
way that does not offend them. Your initial goal is to recognize how the
contact is behaving so that you can mirror your response and have an
effective conversation. Your longer-term goal is to have an idea of
their personality tendencies to that you can influence them
appropriately.

To work effectively with a dominant personality,
you should be direct and succinct, deliver value as soon in the sales
call as you can, don't waste their time on non-business topics, and
stress their agenda and how you can help them.

For a more influential personality
(high drive and highly responsive), you should be direct with your
questions and be sure to speak to their agenda. Let them drive the
conversation as long as they stay on the path towards a sale.

For a personality with more social
tendencies, you may need to keep pulling the contact back to the
business topic, but you'll need to do it without being pushy. Let them
talk about what's important to them, but don't let them get too far off
the path. You may need to spend more time in the warm-up.

For more compliant personalities,
such as an engineer or accountant, you will likely need to emphasize
detailed, specific data points, using statistics where possible. You
should be more to the point, be specific and detail-oriented, and be
prepared to give them time to consider the data you supply them.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Being over-aggressive has led to the term "pushy salesperson."
Oftentimes, just the word "salesperson" includes the connotation
"pushy." But if a salesperson isn't aggressive enough, they don't make
the sale. What to do? The key is to combine empathy with aggressiveness.

Let's define these terms first. Empathy is caring
about what the customer does, how they're trying to do it, and what
hurdles they're facing. Empathy is not soft; it's sharing the feelings
of your client without letting emotions dictate your actions. Empathy is
different from sympathy in that even though you may be able to share
their feelings to the same depth, you allow your intellect to dictate
your actions. This allows you to make clear-minded decisions that are in
your clients' best interest. Aggressiveness is continually trying to
advance the account to a sale. Aggressiveness is not harsh; it's simply
your persistence in driving to close the sale.

Empathy ...
* Makes the client feel like you're working to their agenda
* Makes the client like you personally
* Earns you the right to ask difficult questions
*
May get you off the path to closing the sale if you use it too much.
You'll never get to closing on the sale if you're overly empathetic.

Aggressiveness ...
* Advances the discussion towards a close
* Results in fewer calls to advance the account to a close
* Keeps the call valuable to the client (they have a busy schedule, too!)
* Helps you gain a better understanding of what's needed to close the saleHow To Combine Empathy With Aggressiveness
Empathy
and aggressiveness should be integrated throughout each call. You
should always be doing both. The more aggressive you become, the more
empathetic you need to be. Both should be applied as overarching
principles throughout the call, such as combining emotional outcomes
(empathy) with business outcomes (aggressiveness). Example: You call a
prospect and they have a meeting in five minutes. Ask, "When can I call
you back?" and make sure you get a specific time and date.

The
mix will be dictated by the situation. Aggressiveness should be
constant throughout the call to drive towards closing. The amount of
necessary empathy may be dictated by the cues or by your amount of
aggressiveness. Example: During a phone call, the client sounds
disconnected, and you hear typing in the background. You could stop and
ask if this is a good time or, "Should we reschedule another time that
would be better?"

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Many reps think closing calls are more important than prospecting
calls. They'll zip through the prospecting call in hopes that their next
call could be a closing call. The correct approach is to understand the
importance of the prospecting call so you will plan and execute it
effectively.

On every call, including the initial sales
call, you should be trying to advance the account as far as possible
towards a sale. The goal of each call is the same -- to get them to a
close, not to send them your literature or schedule the next call. Half
the battle is getting people to talk with you. Why would you want to cut
it short?

There are a few components that are unique to your initial sales call:1. Introduction:
This occurs when you are calling on a new customer or a new contact at
that customer. You need to share your niche statement and introduce
yourself as their salesperson.2. Ask key "knockout" questions:
Some standard "knockout" questions center on budget and decision-making
ability. If they don't have money to buy what you're selling or they
don't have the authority to buy what you're selling, why are you talking
with them? If you don't ask your knockout questions on your initial
sales call, you will waste your time (and theirs) until you get those
questions answered.3. Establish their first impression:
You only get one chance to make a good first impression. Much of their
attitude towards you will be based on this initial sales call.

Monday, April 7, 2014

You can't make the sale if the person you're talking with has no idea
what you do. And they won't give you half an hour to explain it to
them. That's why it's important for you to take the time to craft a
niche statement. A good niche statement isn't "one size fits all." A
tailored niche statement, combined with your statement of purpose, gives
enough information so the contact understands who you are, what your
product is, and why you're calling. But don't give enough information
for them to think they can make an informed purchasing decision.

Tailored niche statements:
1. Are only applicable on you initial sales call
2. Get the prospect's attention quickly so you can continue the conversation
3. Let them know who you are and why you're calling without providing too much detail.

You
will leave them wanting more information about you. If you say too
much, you give them an opportunity to develop a preconceived opinion
that you're not a good fit for their needs. It's better to leave them
wanting more information about your company. This can be a way to spark
interest.

How To Tailor Your Niche Statement
1. Set up the framework for the rest of the call
2.
Be direct and succinct. Think "elevator pitch." If you cannot describe
your product to a prospect while on an elevator by the time they reach
their floor, it's too long.
3. Be accurate and applicable
4. Purport a potential fit between the customer and your company
5. Convey your overall focus
6. Convey a stature or uniqueness (e.g. "We are the leading..." or "We are the only...")
7.
Be tailored to the prospect based on information you've gathered about
them. For example, if you're selling to a family doctor, you should
emphasize family doctors in your niche statement. Then, when you're
calling on a specialist, you should mention their specialty in your
niche statement. Remember point #3 when tailoring your niche statement
-- it has to be accurate and applicable.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Precall planning is the process of preparing to make a True Sales Call. A precall plan can:
1. Help you ID the desired Business Outcomes and Emotional Outcomes of a call
2. Help you tailor your "elevator pitch" to the client
3. Help you align pitches and proofs
4. Give you something to start the conversation with and get their attention
5. Help you understand what the client does

The
time it takes to develop an adequate precall plan could be anywhere
from 10 minutes for a prospect to 30 seconds for a follow-up call deep
into the sales cycle. You want to limit your time because you could get
lost in the planning which will affect your ability to achieve a
sufficient volume of True Sales Calls. There's no bigger waste of time
than preparing an hour for a prospect only to find out 45 seconds into
the call they have no legitimate need for your service.

For
an initial call, gather just enough information so you don't sound like
a neophyte and enough information to star a conversation. Do you
understand what the prospect does? Do you know the right person to call?
Also, prepare your potential proofs and put them into a folder
dedicated to that prospect.

For follow-up calls, much
of your precall planning should occur when completing the previous call
while it's still fresh in your mind. Reviewing your notes (which
sometimes look like hieroglyphics) two days after the call is not as
effective as planning immediately after the call. Think about and plan
what you want to do next and record it. Then, prior to the next call,
review those notes to refresh your memory of the account.

These
tips aren't earth-shattering. But we've seen a common reason sales reps
don't achieve their desired outcomes with a customer is simply because
they didn't plan -- they didn't prepare prior to the call and they
didn't complete takeaways from the previous call. Some reps do get away
with little preparation (for a time), but don't leave your success to
chance.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

NETSCAD stands for Not Enough True Sales Calls A Day. This is a
disease that has a 100% mortality rate in salespeople. You need to speak
with the final decision-maker (DM) or someone in the DM loop who has
the ability to influence the DM.On a True Sales Call, you can achieve:
1. Identifying the client's budget constraints to make your initial sale as lucrative as possible
2. Probing to understand their value opportunities (needs and wants)
3. Providing value that shows you can help them
4. Uncovering/revealing attitudes
5. Validating a current customer's expectations and satisfaction
6. Validating previously delivered value. Get them excited again about what you've done for them.

You
need to apply skepticism to ensure you actually made a True Sales Call.
The client may want to just be nice but did not give you any real
information that was useful. Set aside your feelings about the call (emotions) and consider the facts:
1. Was the same topic/information simply rehashed?
2. Have you progressed toward a sale or upsell?
3. Did you get new actionable information?
4. Did you get additional critical information such as DM loop, budget, and new value opportunities?
5.
Ask yourself the hard question -- "What information did I actually get
from the contact and is that information useful?" -- and give yourself
an honest answer.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

If you do a good job at closing on points as you move through the
sales process, it should lead to you closing on the sale. That phrase
will be repeated throughout this posting for emphasis. Closing on a
point occurs during your sales discussion at the end of your comments in
QACF,
prompting the client to provide feedback. The feedback from the client
is usually one of four attitudes: Acceptance, Skepticism, Indifference,
or Objection. These attitudes may also be revealed by the
client/prospect without you asking.

There are at least 6 good reasons to close on points:
1. It reveals and validates an attitude.
2. It helps determine if you need to ask more questions.
3. It helps you determine if you need to deliver more value.
4. It can lead the customer to sell themselves.
5. Validate your understanding of what they're saying.
6. Demonstrate engagement with the contact (active listening).

As stated before, if you do a good job at closing on points as you move through the sales process, it should lead to you closing on the sale. If the customer rejects the sale, there is most likely a true objection that has not been addressed.

How To Close On Points
Your
goal is to get and build acceptance. Ask questions which prompt "yes"
responses along the way. Doing this increases the chance of the prospect
giving you a "yes" answer in response to us helping them with a Value Opportunity.
And, it increases the chance of getting a "yes" answer on the sale. For
example, "So, do you see how we can help you with your branding?" and
"Would that help you increase your sales?"

Closing on a point can be hard or soft. Media advertising examples --Hard: "Is that somebody you would advertise to get in front of?" "Would you advertise in order to get customers like that?"Soft:
"Are those the types of people you're trying to get in front of?" "Is
that the kind of person who would be a potential customer for you?"

Their response when you present Value Propositions
will reveal their attitude. Remember, most salespeople want to hear
acceptance. If you can be skeptical and remove emotion from your call to
remain objective, you will be better at recognizing attitudes. The
degree of their response is directly tied to the degree to which you
probe to fully understand their Value Opportunities.Additional Tips
* Speak to their agenda, not yours.
* Don't assume that a Value Opportunity is accepted. Ask the question to tie down.
* Balance empathy with aggressiveness.
*
If you are closing on points properly, you can uncover and respond
appropriately to attitudes so that closing on the sale will be
assumptive or soft.
* If you do a good job at closing on points as you move through the sales process, it should lead to you closing on the sale.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Many Erie Sales Club members provide services to businesses and/or individuals, so when asked at our Nov. 13 sales workshop, the attendees were happy to provide insights on selling services. Here's some of the advice they offered:

One of the biggest struggles with selling services is that they tend to be complex, intangible, and do not have evident urgency. For example, if your car is totaled in an accident, it's clear the buyer needs a new vehicle ASAP. But that urgency does not apply to life insurance, advertising, or consulting services.

Follow the law of reciprocity. Give, give, give, give, give, and eventually it will come back to you.

You need to define your services in a way that is attractive and enticing to the buyer. Talk in terms of outcomes that will benefit them, not just activities you perform.

Create testimonial letters about what you were able to accomplish for your customers. Be sure to highlight the problems you solved for them. That will speak loudest to your prospects.

Specialize by selling your services to vertical markets. This will help you learn that market better and create tailored solutions for those customers. Market yourself as "the leading ___ provider for the ____ industry."

Don't just ask for referrals; have a referral strategy. Determine the key companies you want to sell to and then develop a plan to get into those companies.

Thoroughly research companies before you call on them. This way, you can match your solutions to their problems on the first call which will be more enticing to them and increase your chances for a second call (and a sale).

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Networking is always a hot topic among sales professionals, so there's no surprise it was discussed at the Nov. 13 Erie
Sales Club workshop. Attendees shared several
interesting ideas and points on this subject.

Attending face-to-face events is a must, especially for local salespeople. You need to carve out time in your schedule to attend these events.

Networking at the event is just step number one. Step number two takes place after the event: always get in touch with people you met at the event to explore a possible partnership moving forward.

Related to the previous point: don't over-promise and under-deliver. If you volunteer for the organization, be sure to follow through on your commitment.

Building relationships takes time. Don't just attend one networking event and then decide to never attend another because you didn't generate immediate sales.

One easy first step to connect after networking events is on LinkedIn. Find people you met, then send a personalized message asking them to connect with you. Follow-up with a phone call after you've connected.

You can also network by joining a group on LinkedIn and then connecting with fellow group members. The cost to do this? Free.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Motivation was one of the many topics discussed at the Nov. 13 Erie Sales Club workshop. The sales pros in attendance shared several interesting ideas and points on this subject.

Before implementing a sales contest, you need to understand each
individual's competence and motivation. Without that, your techniques
will be misguided and likely ineffective.

As Daniel Pink details in To Sell Is Human, what people want is mastery,
autonomy, and purpose. If you're not providing those, your team will
not be fully motivated.

Another book that provides strong motivational advice is Ownership Thinking by Brad Hams. This book provides best practice instructions for establishing a 90-day Rapid Improvement Plan to improve a key business activity.

Sales contests that reward the activities which lead to sales are often motivating. For example, develop a contest that gives a point for each phone call or sales contact. The highest score receives an award at the end of the week.

Contests can be daily as well. Pin $20 to the corkboard and set a contact or sales goal for the day.

Seek accountability partners. Find colleagues you can share your goals with and ask them to keep you on task. Knowing that someone else is counting on you can be very motivating.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Building Value is a function of strengthening your Value Propositions with additional examples within a Value Opportunity (VO), applying multiple Value Propositions to a VO, and repeating this process throughout multiple VOs (for complex sales).

7 Tips Related To Building Value
1. Building value with many little proofs
(examples) is a subtle way to build acceptance and rapport. It is
nonthreatening to the prospect, and they don't feel as if they're "being
sold."
2. If you can keep adding specific Value Propositions that address a VO, you will gain acceptance.
3. Doing this shows you are actively listening to the customer. It validates your understanding of the customer's VOs.
4.
It can increase the amount of your sale. Even if they want to buy,
deepening the acceptance of value provided on already identified Value
Opportunities can increase the amount of the sale.
5. You come
across as having more in common with the customer. You don't feel like a
stranger, and rapport is built quicker and stronger.
6. You come
across as someone who understands their issues and has put thought into
what real solution could be, as opposed to just pushing your product on
them like many other sales reps do.
7. Once you feel you have reached a point where you can trial close, a powerful tool will be going back to summarize the multiple Value Propositions provided over multiple VOs.

How To Build Value
If
you have deeply probed to gain a full understanding of a customer's
particular VO and presented customer-specific value, you should get
acceptance. Once this initial acceptance is revealed, present additional
Value Propositions that you know will address that VO.
* Presenting more of the same Value Proposition:
Present more specific examples of a Value Proposition to address a VO.
For example, if the Value Proposition is the Marketing Director of the
prospect company "needing qualified leads," then present to him or her
more examples of the same type of leads you can offer them through your
marketing service.
* Presenting additional Value Propositions:
Your goal is to address multiple VOs with multiple Value Propositions
and build enough overall acceptance to close. For example, if you are
selling an truck to a customer, they may also need help selling (or
trading in) their current vehicle. Plus, they may need guidance
purchasing accessories for the truck, including a truck bed cap and a
tow hitch. The more value you show them in those areas, the higher the
likelihood of you making not just the vehicle sale but add-on sales.

When
Building Value, keep it conversational. Don't get into a canned sales
speech, and keep it in a context that's specific to the customer. Keep
building value on a point that they like to talk about. Try to find as
many examples of specific value as you can to ensure maximum acceptance.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Let's start first with a definition of Pitches and Proofs before we talk about how to make them work for you. A Pitch
is a snippet of information presented in a somewhat broad sense to show
how you can provide a product/service that will address the client's Value Opportunities.
It's a claim you make -- the concept of what you can do. It is possible
to make sales on the concept alone, but it's more effective if you
offer Proofs.

Proofs
are specific examples that prove what was described by the pitch. It's a
validation of value. Here are some principles of strong Proofs:
1. More powerful if someone else (another customer of yours) is saying it. Think reference letters and testimonials.
2.
Uses specifics to show or imply the benefits of your features. "Company
X is great to work with" isn't very specific. "Company X and their
MarketConnect product provided me with 100 leads which increased my
sales by $250,000" is much more specific and effective.
3. Includes specific numbers and stats

How To Deliver Pitches & Proofs
Delivery of Pitches and Proofs is important in determining whether or not the pitch/proof results in accepted value. When using QACF
(Question, Answer, Comment, Feedback) to probe, the comment can be a
pitch or proof. Do not deliver until you are sure the pitch/proof is
both:
1. Appropriate -- adds value to address an identified Value Opportunity
2. Complete -- tells not just what you can do but how it will benefit the client.

It's
a good idea to compile and organize a stack of proof sheets so that as
fast as you are identifying Value Opportunities, you can find proofs to
reinforce the value you deliver. The client should control how quickly
you reach a point to deliver a pitch/proof. Let them take their time to
define the Value Opportunity. Accuracy is more important than speed.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Throwing out value without knowing that it will address a Value Opportunity
of your customer is uneconomical. There's no reason for a person to buy
something unless it satisfies a need. If the customer can see exactly
how your products/services can help them, they will be much more likely
to buy.

When To Offer Value Propositions
You should initially offer value at the following times: (This does not include offering additional value to build acceptance. We covered that in another posting.)
1.
During probing for understanding, once you are confident the Value
Proposition will effectively address their Value Opportunity. Delivering
customer-specific Value Propositions will build acceptance and lead to
closing on the sale.
2. To get the attention of a non-responsive customer if
they are trying to get rid of you. You must make an educated guess what
value will match their needs based on your precall plan.
3. Part of soliciting feedback to show you're listening to their needs.

How To Offer Value PropositionsReactive - these are delivered during the call. You react to what they say with the pitches and proofs you know.
1.
Use QA (Question/Answer) to gather as much information as possible
about the different needs they have that legitimately match up to the
services we provide. Do not promise what we cannot deliver, but make
sure you uncover all of the ways we can help.
2. Use their excitement level as a way to gauge which needs are of higher priority. They may also tell you their priorities.

Active
note-taking (and accurate CRM entries) are crucial to ensure you don't
miss anything. Don't just "vomit value." Value should be
customer-specific to ensure that you are always adding to their
acceptance. What is valuable to one prospect may not matter to another.

Proactive
- these are delivered offline, not during the call. You evaluate their
Value Opportunities and develop creative Value Propositions and/or
creative ways to communicate with them. Here are some ways to offer
value if you can't get a meeting with the DM:
1. Email -- but don't get lulled into doing everything via email
2.
Fax or Direct Mail -- remember when we used to do this all the time?
Well fewer people are faxing or sending direct mail pieces nowadays, so
your message will stand out (if it's a good one). Don't just send your
marketing materials; always, always, always include a personal note.
3. Through social media - do they have a Facebook page, Twitter account, or LinkedIn listing?
4. Call before or after hours (when the gatekeeper isn't in)
5. Send them a greeting card -- you can find people's birthdays on many social media outlets
6. Send them a personal item -- if they like jellybeans, drop off a bag for them with a note attached.
7. Send their staff a gift -- we recently sent a customer $1 scratch-off lottery tickets for their staff and it was a real hit.
8. Send them a testimonial letter -- this can work especially well when the testimonial is from a competitor of theirs.
9. Join groups they are a member of -- like the Erie Sales Club!

6. Make it your goal to embrace objections -- as opposed to the natural reaction to quickly defend yourself against the objection, which only strains the relationship. Train yourself to make your first reaction be to thank your customer for sharing; then go to work to understand why they have that objection.

7. The process to manage any objection is RIPO: Restate, Isolate, Probe To Understand, Overcome. Give your customer a chance to clarify by repeating their words. When they say "I don't have budget," did that mean they don't have any budget whatsoever or they don't have a budget for you?

8. Your discussion on objections should be sincere. If the truth is your product/service isn't the right fit for the customer, that's fine. Treat them like they are a family member. Would you recommend they buy or not buy from you? Help them make an accurate decision.

9. Be prepared to overcome objections. Know potential pain points up front and be prepared to share that data with the prospect. Data could include industry statistics and success stories of your customers who were in a similar situation.

10. With most budget objections, there's a good chance the buyer hasn't "done the math," so by all means do the math with them. Help them see the cost/benefit of either moving forward or not. Even if it's not calculable, describe in detail both alternatives. Help them see the risks of doing nothing -- give them all the facts.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Discussing objections is typically a popular topic among sales reps and managers, and that proved true at the Erie Sales Club workshop held on Aug. 14 at the offices of Jameson Publishing. A group of nearly 30 professionals from the local area participated in the 90-minute workshop which featured expert panelists Jay Fritzke of Employee Insights, Dan "The Real Estate Man" Omniewski of Marsha Marsh Real Estate, and Derek Van Slyke of Jameson Publishing.

Here are 5 key points of advice from the workshop. We'll post more in the near future -- there was a ton of excellent conversation at the workshop we'd like to share with you.

1. Many salespeople struggle because they are trying to overcome multiple objections that are actually a lack of perceived value. If you're getting price/value objections, don't accept that as the real reason the sale can't move forward. Evaluate if you've really done your best at uncovering needs and aligning value.

2. Ask the customer for help identifying the value they see in your solution vs. others. If your "stack" of value isn't bigger, you don't deserve the prospect's money.

3. To appropriately understand the prospect and their objections, have present a group of questions that will help you uncover this information. Take notes so you can review where your solution aligns with their needs (and where it doesn't). Also be sure to share information about yourself and your solution so the prospect can help you align your value with their needs.

4. "It's always about the price and it's never about the price." If you can solve their problem, they will buy from you. But first you need to know the problem.

5. When you receive a price objection, don't race to defend your value. Ask the prospect, "Why do you think people pay us more for our solution?" This will test how well the prospect understands your value proposition. Ask this question, and you'll be surprised at the answers you receive.

We
see too often that a prospect presents a VO and we rush to throw out
our Value Proposition(s). The Value Proposition is often mismatched
because we do not fully understand the VO first. This does not build
acceptance, it can create skepticism and/or indifference, and you can
lose credibility when you're wrong in this guessing game. Also, trying
to align value too soon is not consultative. You become just another
pushy salesperson trying to pitch them something.

There are two approaches to aligning your Value Propositions:
1. Shotgun Approach:
Providing value that you THINK is valuable. Maybe the value is
important and addresses a Value Opportunity, or maybe it doesn't. It it
unlikely the Value Proposition will address the VO.
2. Rifle Approach:
Providing value to the prospect that you KNOW is valuable to them. By
fully understanding the VO, you know (vs. you guess) the Value
Proposition you offer will address the VO.
Obviously the Rifle Approach is the only acceptable method.

If
executed properly using the Rifle Approach, eventually you transition
from how you could possibly be helping them to how you will be helping
them. This can lead to them closing themselves. All of this is rooted in
taking the time to ask the right questions. You cannot simply pull VOs
from a list, and every customer will have different VOs.

About Us

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. ... All content on this site is Copyright (C) Jameson Publishing and cannot be used without written permission.